We provide evidence that a history of democracy at the local level is associated with contemporary democracy at the national level. Auxiliary estimates show that a tradition of local democracy is also associated with attitudes that favor democracy, with better quality institutions, and higher...

Many municipalities in Germany suffer from fiscal distress. The high level of communal debt seems problematic against the background of the European sovereign debt crisis. The regulation of bankruptcy and insolvency for German municipalities could be a solution, but such regulation would have to...

Self-governments are given new tasks without guaranteeing resources for their completion, an example of which is lowering the school obligation age.There are also some savings of the state budget at the expense of territorial selfgovernment. All these and other changes, including those planned...

In India an important policy initiative has been the devolution of financial responsibilities to village level local governments called the Panchayats. The Preamble to this initiative is two fold. First such devolution would not only lead to increased public expenditure but also such...

The objective of democratic decentralization is to enable institutions at the grassroots level to take decisions in matters related to the day to day life of the people. Transparency and accountability do not happen on their own: they have to be promoted and delivered by performing institutions....